Sentry M-00K-1337 sighed as he patrolled the empty concrete corridors of the laboratory. His was a dull existence; days spent walking a circuit around empty and poorly lit grey hallways. Some people would go mad from the tedium and wish for something, anything to happen. Not 1337 however. He was quite content with nothing ever happening. No one would blame him for feeling such a way, as the sounds he heard emanating from the secure labs on occasion never failed to give him the willies.

1337 paused by the blast doors that blocked off the laboratory's main entrance from the real world. Staring blankly at the thick, metal slabs, 1337 stepped up to them. He thought he could hear…something on the other side. Stopping in front of the doors, the sentry slowly put his ear the cool metal. Was that…hissing?

With an earth-shattering roar and a plume of fire, the blast doors were blown off their tracks, smashing against the opposite wall. Klaxons blared and ceiling mounted red emergency lights blinked and spun as smoke billowed into the corridors. Out from the choking smoke came several black-cloaked figures with porcelain animal masks. Ignoring the smear of red paste across the floor from the doorway to the crumpled doors, the masked men and women spread out and charged into the hazy science complex.

-CoB-

The guards were struggling to breath in the smoky air. From the way their eyes and throats burned, the smoke was laced with an irritant or chemicals. As the stricken guards tried to gain some semblance of order, one of them was peppered with a volley of spade-shaped knives with a ring on the end of the handle. Looking in the direction the kunai had come from, one of the guards saw a shrouded figure through the haze and his tears. As the figure coalesced, the guard's blood ran cold as he saw the animal mask.

"ANBU!" It was the last thing he'd ever say.

-CoB-

The man known as 'Newt' was a member of the ANBU, the 'dark side' elite black-ops unit from the shinobi military village of Konohagakure, located in the forested Land of Fire. Newt, so named because of his stylized newt mask, had been a member of ANBU for years, and was the epitome of professionalism. The mission he was currently on however, was personal. His unit was to find the archtraitor Orochimaru of the sannin.

Sixteen years ago, Orochimaru of the sannin was found to have been experimenting with bloodlines, using children as his test subjects. Though the snake-like man was forced to flee Konohagakure, it was too late for his victims. Of the sixty children Orochimaru had been experimenting on, only one survived. One of the dead had been Newt's baby sister, her body malformed and marred by ugly growths of diseased wood sprouting from her body and splitting her flesh. After recovering from a breakdown upon seeing her body, Newt had declared that he would not rest until the snake sannin had been brought to justice.

For sixteen years though, there had been no word of Orochimaru anywhere, until the traitor got complacent and allowed a civilian to see him. That tip had led them right to this secret lab on the outskirts of Swamp Country. Unfortunately, it appeared that the man—and Newt used the term lightly—had caught wind of them and rabbited. However, Orochimaru had left most of his research notes and materiel behind.

Newt took little comfort in that fact as he flipped through medical reports, experimental results and findings, and various other medical and scientific papers found in the traitor's personal office. Sighing, Newt put aside a report in a manila folder. Yet another report that gave no hint to Orochimaru's whereabouts or activities. Wearily, Newt picked up and flipped open another folder, idly skimming over the contents. A name caught his eye and he froze, rereading it.

Slowly, Newt reached up to his ear with a shaky hand. Tapping his ear, he activated his radio. "Dog, Captain, this is Newt, come in."

His radio hissed with static before it cleared. "This is Captain Dog, go ahead Newt."

"Captain, she's here."

The radio clicked. "Newt, please clarify. Who's here?"

Newt gave a dry swallow. "The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki."

-CoB-

Jinchuurki, a word synonymous to a terrible curse. Literally meaning the power of human sacrifice, the word referred to those who held and controlled the power of one of nine tailed beasts, the Bijuu. Shunned by society, often seen as the very beasts they held, Jinchuriki were often alone in their terrible burden.

It was not lightly then that Konohagakure had made their own Jinchuriki. However, there had been no choice at the time, as the Kyuubi no Yoko, the nine tailed fox and most powerful of the Bijuu, had laid siege to the village. Many died, and it was only through the self sacrifice of their fourth Hokage, their leader, that the Kyuubi was defeated, sealed away in a newborn baby. A baby girl by the name of Naruko Uzumaki; who had disappeared from the orphanage not a week later.

-CoB-

Dog arrived at the sealed blast doors leading to the secured labs roughly the same time that Newt did. Pulling out a slip of paper with archaic scribbles of black ink, Dog stuck it to the doors and pulsed chakra, the energy present within all living things, into it. Slowly, the ink on the paper rearranged itself, creating a rough sketch of an empty room lined with cylindrical tanks.

At Dog's command, Newt took out a similar slip of paper and placed it across the keyboard on the electronic lock. After a few moments, the lock bleeped, and the blast doors inexorably ground apart. As two more ANBU arrived, Dog ordered the frog- and duck-masked men to stand guard. Saluting, the two took their positions as Dog and Newt entered the secure labs.

Newt halted in horror as they came across the first of the containment vessels, armored glass cylinders filled with a viscous green fluid. Floating inside each vessel was the horribly mutilated corpse of what used to be a child. As Newt sank to his knees, reliving seeing his sister's body, Dog's jaw tightened. The bodies were horribly disfigured, abominations of the highest degree. A shriveled arm here; a leg twisted into something chitinous there; arms fused to the torso; desiccated vestigial limbs; even a body with the flesh of the neck and the jaw split open, revealing the insides of the airways. The horrors of this unassuming laboratory abounded.

Steeling himself, Dog helped Newt to his feet. Steadying the man on his feet, Dog led Newt deeper into the glorified abattoir. Finally, after a seeming eternity, Dog and Newt reached a sealed quarantine door that led to the inner-most of the secured labs. Bracing themselves for anything, the two ANBU agents opened the door. What they found though, was unlike anything they had imagined.

In the center of the room was a free-standing containment vessel. There, floating in the green fluids in the fetal position was a little girl with long, blonde hair and three dainty whisker marks on each cheek. At first glance, it would appear that she was garbed in a purple bodysuit with various tubes and wires leading to the top of the tank. However a closer inspection revealed that the bodysuit was actually a soft chitin, the fingers and toes tipped with black claws. A long talon sprouted from each heel, giving her the appearance of wearing high-heel shoes. The chitin covered the entire body, ending with a line of chitin on the jawline, leaving the rest of her face unblemished. On her shoulder blades was a pair of vent-like growths, a belch of gas-filled bubbles occasionally released from each one. From the small of the girl's back sprouted a pair of skeletal, bat-like wings with a clawed thumb and three 'fingers' that would reach to her knees should she be standing.

Dog slowly approached the tank. Reaching out, he slowly stroked his thumb over where the girl's chitin-covered jawline could be seen. "What did he do to you, Naruko?"

Sighing as Newt ransacked the room, Dog reached up to activate his radio. "Control, this is Dog. No sign of the target. We need a clean-up crew and a medical team at our location."

The radio hissed. "Roger that Dog. The cleaners and the medics will be sent out momentarily."

"Acknowledged." Dog paused, trying to moisten his dry mouth. "Also, inform the Hokage. The legacy of the Fourth has been found."

-CoB-

Hiruzen Sarutobi was tired. An old, wrinkled man with a grey goatee, the sixty-one year old would much prefer to spend his days sitting on his porch, smoking his pipe, and doting on his only grandson. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Following the death of his successor, Hiruzen was pulled out of retirement and reinstated as the Third Hokage of Konohagakure. There had been a reason he had retired when he had. He was getting tired, far too tired to deal with the politics that came with the job. Sadly, needs must, and the death of his dearest Biwako and the disappearance of his successor's secret daughter a week after her birth had hurt him. As such, the council that dealt with civilian affairs had gotten away with far more than they should. Fortunately, they still did not have any hooks sunk into shinobi affairs, thanks to the village elders Homura Mitokado, Koharu Utatane and Danzou Shimura.

Recently though, the news that his successor's legacy had been found had put a new pep in his step. Honestly, he hadn't felt this young in years. Still, the news of what his traitorous student had done to her had dampened the feeling slightly. Sighing, Hiruzen put down his paperwork and looked at the monumental pile of papers on his desk, then at the clock. Nodding at the time, Hiruzen stood up and left his office, his ANBU bodyguards following covertly.

Arriving at the hospital, Hiruzen immediately made his way to the secure wing where the dangerous, convict and potentially contagious patents were kept. Nodding at the jounin at the security desk, Hiruzen waited patiently for security to cycle him through. Unlike some leaders, the elderly Hokage knew how easy it was to steal a face, and so suffered through security procedures like anyone else. As the security doors slid open, Hiruzen entered and waited on the other side for his ANBU guards to be cleared through.

As soon as his guards had been cleared through, Hiruzen went straight for the quarantine bay where the most potentially dangerous or contagious inpatients were kept. Going through another thorough security checkpoint, Hiruzen entered the quarantine and containment lab.

Inside the lab, several technicians in white coats and goggles bustled around at various computer terminals and equipment stations. As Hiruzen entered, all the technicians, save a few working on sensitive projects, stopped and saluted. However, the Hokage paid them no attention. Instead, all he had eyes for was the quarantine and containment cell in the center of the lab. There, in the center of the cell, surrounded by technicians in hazardous material suits, was a little girl floating in a tank of green fluids.

"Hello sensei."

Hiruzen turned to his left. There next to him was a light-skinned woman of average height with brown eyes and straight, blonde hair. Hiruzen smiled as he took in the woman's waist-length hair with shoulder-length bangs framing both sides of her face, a small purple diamond tattooed in the center of her forehead, and overly generous bust. He knew this woman very well. "Hello Tsunade."

Tsunade Senju was the granddaughter of Hashirama Senju, the first Hokage and wielder of the wood release bloodline, and one of Hiruzen's former students. She was a bit of a gambler and, after the loss of her nephew and lover during the second Great War, somewhat of a heavy drinker. She was also a bit vain, as she took great care to look only half her age of forty-four. Despite her flaws though, there was no one who was as skilled a doctor as she.

"So," Hiruzen asked as he turned back to the Q&C cell. "How is she?"

"Well," Tsunade mused. "She's as well as can be expected, considering what the snake did to her. She's not contagious, if you were wondering."

Hiruzen looked aside at her. "Oh? So why is she still," he motioned at the containment vessel. "In there?"

Tsunade sighed as she jotted something down on a clipboard and handed it off to a technician. "Right now, we're checking her immune system. Making sure it is still up to the task of protecting her from contagions and the like after what happened to her." She looked at her old teacher. "It's a good thing your ANBU kept her in there when they found her. Swamp Country is well known for its mosquitoes and malaria."

A technician with black eyes and straight black hair approached Tsunade with a clipboard. "Lady Tsunade, the results from Naruko's immune system tests are incredible. I've never seen anything like it."

As Tsunade looked over the clipboard, Hiruzen addressed the technician. "Hello Shizune. How have you been?"

Shizune Kato, Tsunade's apprentice and niece to her late lover Dan Kato, blushed as such a powerful and famous man spoke to her. "Oh, I am well, thanks for asking."

Before he could speak further, Hiruzen's attention was caught by Tsunade's muttered "my god."

Hiruzen frowned. "Is there something the matter Tsunade?"

Tsunade shook her head. "No, far from it. Her immune system is the strongest I've ever seen. More so, her immune system appears to be actively adapting to whatever we throw at the samples we've taken."

The Hokage frowned. "I don't follow."

Shizune answered at Tsunade's prompting. "The human immune system could be described as reactionary. When a viral infection sets in, the immune system throws several different killer-T cells at the infected cells. Once one sticks, the immune system makes enough of it to allow the leukocytes to easily destroy the infection. After that, that particular type of killer-T cell will continue to be produced.

"Naruko's is far different. When we introduced a virus to one of the samples we took, it produced killer-T cells as is normal. However, when the T cells reached the infected cells, they didn't bounce off like they normally would. Instead, they actively changed to fit. Such a thing is unheard of!"

Tsunade nodded. "Well put Shizune. Well done." Tsunade looked back down at her notes. "Based on what we know, it would appear that Naruko's body is able to evolve in response to negative outside stimuli. It actually would explain more than it doesn't."

"Oh?"

"Indeed." Tsunade motioned the Hokage over to a computer monitor which showed the fleshy structures on Naruko's shoulder blades. "See these? Essentially organic heat vents. Since her chitin doesn't have pores or sweat glands, she needed some way to cool off. If we're correct about her being able to evolve, her body grew those on their own to protect her from overheating. Also, her hair is not actually hair, but actually segmented hollow tendrils made up of a bone-like substance and filled with an organic, non-newtonian fluid, most likely evolved to protect her from head trauma. The fluid only reacts to objects moving at high speeds, so it can still be cut like hair." She paused. "I'm not sure I want to know what Orochimaru did to get her to grow wings though."

Klaxons began to wail suddenly as red hazard lights flashed. A technician ran over to a monitor before spinning around as Hiruzen's ANBU guards jumped into place. "Sir! There's a massive build up of chakra inside the containment cell!"

Tsunade turned to see the containment vessel emitting a sickly red glow. "Get everyone out of there and close the blast shields!"

The last technician fled the containment cell, allowing Tsunade to activate the lockdown. The thick, heavy metal doors slid down just in time as the tank inside the containment cell exploded. The force of the blast was enough to knock everyone off their feet, even through the inch-thick metal blast shields.

Slowly, the blast shields lifted to reveal a chitin covered girl on her hands and knees before the shattered tank. Her limp hair and wings twitched sympathetically with each shuddering heave as her body purged her lungs of green bile.

As she knelt there wracked by dry-heaves, Tsunade went to the airlock leading to the containment cell. Shizune and Hiruzen's ANBU bodyguards moved to stop her, only for them to be barred by the Hokage's outstretched arm.

"Stop." Hiruzen glanced at the ANBU and the apprentice. "We don't know what her mental state is. Anything could set her off. And right now," Hiruzen dropped his arm and watched as Tsunade cycled through the lock. "Tsunade's the only one I trust to be able to subdue her safely should she prove to be hostile."

Cycling through the lock, Tsunade forewent the hazmat suit and approached the still heaving Naruko. Kneeling in front of the girl, Tsunade waited. Soon, Naruko stopped vomiting and looked up. Tsunade was enraptured by those bright, sky blue eyes.

She smiled. "Hello Naruko. I'm your godmother."

For a long moment, those baby-blue eyes bored into hers. It was as if the girl was looking deep into Tsunade's very soul. After what seemed to be an eternity, Naruko lunged forward, catching Tsunade and those watching off guard with her sheer speed. To everyone's shock though, Tsunade was embraced in a hug.

As the girl held her close with both arms and wings, Tsunade heard a whispered "thank you." Smiling softly, Tsunade returned the embrace as the chitin covered blond fell asleep in her arms.

AN: The plot bunnies strike again! I fully blame starcraft's Heart of the Swarm DLC for this one.